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Blue Jays sign fourth-round pick Will Robertson

| Thomas Williams

Continuing their streak of signing their 2019 draft picks, the Toronto Blue Jays announced that they have signed their fourth-round pick, outfielder Will Robertson.

Somewhat surprising that Robertson signed under slot, since it was rumoured that the junior at Creighton University would be one of the more difficult signings that the Jays had from this draft.

But with this signing official now, the Jays could say that they have had a successful draft, after other analysts name Toronto as one of the teams that came away from the three-day venture with a big haul.

With a significant lack of any outfielders in the system, or in the majors for that matter, the Jays addressed a major issue with this pick. If Robertson has any ability to rise up through the system, Toronto could reap the benefits with this potential high-power bat and safe glove.

In 222 at-bats during his 2019 season, the 6-foot-1 outfielder hit 15 home runs with a 1.007 OPS while striking-out only 39 times and walking 25.

In pre-draft rankings, Robertson was listed higher than selected on average. Fangraphs had him at 61, MLB Pipeline at 81, and Baseball America had him at 95th overall.

Blue Jays select outfielder Will Robertson with 117th pick

They might be far off, but the Blue Jays tried to satisfy their needs with their picks in this year’s draft. High-upside pitchers like Alek Manoah and Kendall Williams selected with their first two picks and sleepers like Robertson and catcher Philip Clarke from Vanderbilt.

A wide variety with their early picks — a college arm, a high school arm, college bat, high school bat — can feel like throwing darts at a giant draft board, but at least some of these picks should stick.

There’s high potential with these selections, but that might just be the initial post-draft feelings that one feels. Putting all the fanatic hope into these young players while there is nothing but a couple players to watch on the actual major-league team.